US beef has been pulled from Taiwan's shelves for containing drugs that promote leanness in animals raised for meat

TAIPEI - THREE shipments of US beef have been pulled from Taiwan's shelves after they were found to contain controversial drugs to promote leanness in animals raised for meat, an official said on Sunday. 'Now all the US beef that may contain the residue of the leanness drug Paylean has been removed from the shelves,' Chiang Yu Mei, a health official at the Taipei city government, told AFP. She urged consumers not to panic, but local media said 1.5 tonnes of such beef might have already been consumed on the island. The move came after three out of 24 US beef samples taken from three hypermarkets in the capital city were found on Friday to contain Paylean in concentrations up to 2.84 parts per billion. The event sparked concerns from the United States, the island's leading source of beef imports. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said that US beef p...